Flood Effects Question

[ryanboater]

Thanks to everyone who posted on the trades between Mid-Atlantic and Colorado boating. The posts were super insightful. At the end of the day, Colorado sounds like a pretty good place to be a boater, especially if you're into other outdoor sports.

I am really sorry to hear about the floods in Colorado, and know that the impact is much deeper than recreational kayaking. That being said, I was wondering how much it looks like flood damage may impact your typical Denver kayaker come kayaking season. It sounds to me that some of the after work runs in the Front Range may be affected or potentially unrunnable. I know its a bit of a guessing game for now.

More specifically, what is the likely impact to a boater who would live in the Denver area, and at the current time paddles up to IV+? Would Clear Creek, which appears unaffacted, be the major local run for a class IV boater anyway, meaning that not all that much is affected with respect to kayaking?

[GPP33]

The only popular runs that were affected are on NSV, SSV and BT. SSV is certainly a very different river. Destroyed? I doubt it, we'll see when the flows come up. NSV isn't road side so I have no idea, the stuff that is (was) roadside is class II. I haven't been up BT so no idea there. Left hand got hit hard but it was almost never run. Who knows, if the flows blew out the dead fall it may be a new hot spot.

Everything south of Lefthand or north of BT remains largely unchanged. Nothing flowing west was affected. So maybe .1% of Colorado's rivers saw an impact.

Boulder and Pouder may have seen a couple of rocks moved around but nothing a new boater to the area would notice. My after work play spot is long gone but Colorado is still what it was.

[craven_morhead]

I live in Denver and enjoy the front range creeks. Clear creek is the bread and butter after work creek for me and was not affected. Ssv carries runnable flows for a smaller window but was a blast for an after work run once you got the moves dialed (though with all the blast rock, some people hate it). It has completely changed, and it's anybody's guess what it will boat like. Big Thompson was a great run as well and by the reports I've heard it has changed a ton as well, again, anybody's guess as to what it will be like. But big t usually doesn't run enough in a average year to be a big after work staple, its more of a treat depending on hydro decisions etc. Who knows how the most affected rivers will change over the next five years, might be like you get a new set of creeks every year as things move around.

[MILTY]

Both Boulder Creek and South Boulder Creek(eldo) had huge changes in their creek beds. Should be interesting...

[GPP33]

Originally Posted by MILTY

Both Boulder Creek and South Boulder Creek(eldo) had huge changes in their creek beds. Should be interesting...

Forgot about south Boulder. Haven't seen that since the floods either.

As for Boulder creek, if you really know the area well you'll notice some differences. For the most part though rapids are still in the same place and appear to be made up by roughly the same size rocks. Some of the really gnarly stuff up closer to Boulder falls may have changed more significantly.

[DavyCrocket]

Originally Posted by MILTY

Both Boulder Creek and South Boulder Creek(eldo) had huge changes in their creek beds. Should be interesting...

Im headed up that way this fall. If all works out I'll report back and let you guys know!